Ukraine war: Russian forces make 'marginal progress at the cost of heavy armoured vehicles losses'

Russian forces have made only "marginal progress at the cost of heavy losses in armoured vehicles" according to the latest Ministry of Defence (MOD) intelligence update.

The update reports that "in recent days, Russia has continued to prioritise an operation attempting to encircle the Donetsk Oblast town of Avdiivka".

Russia's 10th Tank Regiment is highlighted in the MOD intelligence for having "likely lost a large proportion of its tanks while attempting to surround Avdiivka from the south".

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Russia's 10th Tank Regiment is part of 3rd Army Corps, the first major new formation Russia stood up to support the invasion of Ukraine since August 2022.

'Ill discipline and poor morale'

The MOD intelligence added: "Numerous open-source accounts suggested that 3rd Army Corps has been particularly dogged by problems with ill discipline and poor morale. Despite a likely period of training in Belarus, the formation still appears to display limited combat effectiveness.

"10th Tank Regiment's losses have likely largely been due to tactically flawed frontal assaults similar to those in other recent failed Russian armoured attacks, such as around the town of Vuhledar."

Former tank commander Hamish de Bretton-Gordon OBE has also questioned Russia's armoured vehicles, believing that Putin and his generals have already lost if all they can do now is send pre-Second World War T34 tanks and 1950s T55 tanks to the frontline.

The latest defence intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine follows the second cohort of Ukrainian recruits to be trained in the UK on AS90 self-propelled artillery guns returning home, ready for the expected upcoming spring counteroffensive against Russia.

The bespoke training, which has covered all aspects of operating and maintaining the AS90 155mm self-propelled gun system, has been under the control of the Royal School of Artillery and run by officers and soldiers of the Royal Regiment of Artillery.

More than 1,000 British service personnel are involved in the training of Ukrainian forces at MOD sites across the northwest, southwest and southeast of the UK.